Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Cleveland Says No to $50,000 Dallas Ads at Hopkins

The latest in an ongoing feud: Cleveland has reportedly denied $50,000 worth of advertising at Hopkins International Airport that the city of Dallas had purchased to remind RNC delegates what they were missing.

Ads showcasing various Dallas attractions would have invited delegates arriving in Cleveland to a "Grand Old After Party" in the Texas city. Dallas had been a finalist for the RNC.

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The Dallas Morning News reported that their city's officials had "no regrets" about the attempted campaign. They argued that, despite the Cleveland airport's denial, the campaign has nonetheless generated buzz about Dallas' strengths as a convention city.

The lynch pin of Dallas' pitch to Republicans had been that 90 percent of hotel rooms would be within a mile of the convention. In Cleveland, Dallas officials are keen to point out, many delegates are staying in distant suburbs, some as far away as Sandusky.

Though the advertising deal was negotiated by Clear Channel Airports, Hopkins evidently retains the right to deny advertisements for any reason.

"Even had we known at the outset of this process about the friction between Cleveland and Dallas surrounding the RNC we would have done nothing differently," the general manager for Clear Channel Airports was reported to have said in the Morning News.